Researchers from China and the UK have developed two liquid antennas, one spiral, one helical, with wide ranging applications including The Internet of things (IoT) and navigation. Their design is reconfigurable, offers wide bandwidth and is simple in its implementation; the main functional component being saline (or seawater). The helical antenna can be configured and tuned for a number of applications. This work builds on 15 years of research since the introduction of liquid antennas based on saline solutions. Since then, a number of major developments have opened up a vast number of possibilities. In the early days of saline antenna research, monopole antennas dominated, with most interest directed toward half-loop sea water designs. However, in 2007, the dielectric properties of salt water led to the development of a saline dielectric resonator antenna (DRA). This is significant as DRAs remain a hot topic, and liquid antenna research can learn from the conventional. As can be seen in the images, the liquid for the presented antenna makes up the main structure. In this method some modules or components of a conventional antenna are replaced with water or other suitable liquids. For example, dielectric patch antennas were developed for Wi-Fi applications where the conventional metal patches were replaced by water. While the concept and practicality (in some cases) of liquid antennas was established fairly quickly, more nuanced problems remained unresolved. The next step in the technology's evolution was to address miniaturisation and tunability. The first steps in this direction were made with the introduction of a hybrid structure that combined the resonance of a DRA and a monopole antenna as well as solid and liquid materials, with the focus on the influence of the feeding locations and the distribution of the liquid. By now, the obvious advantages of seawater had been harnessed for maritime applications. The US Navy designed and built an electrolytic fluid antenna, where a jet of seawater – shot through an electromagnetic coil – from the surface of the ship acts as the transmitter and receiver. This space saving technique can be easily switched off when not in use. All of these developments extended the range of applications for liquid antennas. Unfortunately, reconfigurability, tunability, and miniaturisation were still limited. However, this changed with the introduction of a mechanically reconfigurable frequency tunable microstrip antenna that used a liquid actuator as the dielectric layer to reduce size. The dielectric liquid was encapsulated inside the polymer to form an actuator, which changed the liquid thickness. Thus, the resonant frequency of the fabricated antenna could be changed. The team built upon existing technology to design their own antennas; injecting saline water into flexible tubes to form the radiation structures. The results: a wideband cylindrical spiral liquid antenna, and a tapered helical water antenna; both with the capacity for advanced manual tunability. Injecting the saline is straightforward and the tube can be used for on-body technology. After this proof of concept, the team extended their work, as explained by Gaosheng Li, one of the authors of the research, “we have launched some investigations into liquid antennas based on room-temperature ionic liquid, which has higher conductive efficiency while keeping the virtues of fluidity and flexibility.” This could help improve the antenna performance, especially the radiation efficiency, which remains a common shortcoming of conventional liquid antennas. Li also expects the field to grow further in the future, “fabrication and manufacturing methods for liquid antennas will progress rapidly over the next decade with the combination of different liquid materials, as well as the integration of solid and liquid materials. “We would like to see more room temperature non-toxic conductive liquid materials invented and compounded, which would benefit the smart design of liquid antennas.”